This is a blog related to CRM Archaeology and all that goes with it. I chronicle my experiences owning an archaeology firm, post news stories, and try to have educational material as often as possible.

The tip of a bone point fragment found embedded in a mastodon rib from an archaeological site in Washington state shows that hunters were present in North America at least 800 years before Clovis.

Dr. Michael Waters explains in the clip below.

The site is the Manis site in Washington State. The bone was radiocarbon dated to 13,800 years ago. That is 800 years earlier than was previously believed. The discovery was published this week in Science.

“The Manis site is an early kill site,” Waters says. “The evidence from the Manis site shows that people were hunting mastodons with bone weapons before the Clovis stone spear point.”

The Manis site was excavated in the late 1970s. No stone tools were discovered at the mastodon kill site. A bone point was found sticking out of one of the ribs, however. At that time there was no way to date the bone point. Waters contacted the original excavator and gained permission to test the rib and the bone point. They returned the 13,800 year old date. The bone point is also from a mastodon.

It is commonly thought that it took the stone spear points of the Clovis culture to take down the megafauna of the time. This proves that they could be taken down by other means and that the Clovis weren't the only culture to hunt mastodon, and likely other megafauna, in this area.

Megafauna Extinction All over the world the early Holocene period saw the decline and extinction of megafauna. The causes of this are a matter of some debate. Changing environmental and climatic conditions must have played a part, but so too did the activities of hunter-gatherer populations. With reference to North America, where 32 genera of mammals became extinct, Paul Martin has argued that the Clovis Culture big-game hunters were responsible for the megafauna extinction because of wasteful hunting methods.

A few weeks ago I attended a lecture at the University of Nevada, Reno called “Clovis in your backyard”. I’ve only just now gotten around to writing about it. For that, I apologize to the 30 people that read this. On to the post.

Dr. Bamforth and Patrick Mahaffy (http://neveryetmelted.com/categories/mahaffy-cache/)Dr. Douglas Bamforth is a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is also a Faculty Affiliate at the Center of the American West, also at the University of Colorado. Dr. Bamforth came to UNR to discuss the 13,000 year old Mahaffy cache that was discovered in 2009.

As he tells it, a project fell into Dr. Bamforth’s lap that was nearly in his backyard. His office received a called from a local man, Patrick Mahaffy, who said that some artifacts turned up during the landscaping of his back yard. The excavation of a coy pond revealed a cache of 83 artifacts.

The Mahaffy Cache (http://academyll.org/files/Douglas%20Bamforth%20-%20Mahaffy%20Cache%20(Clovis).pdf)The cache included points of various sizes and stages of completion. There were four different types of stone, two cherts and two quartzites, and none of it was local. The chert types are called Kremmling and Bridger Basin chert (Tiger chert). The quartzites were from Windy Ridge and the Uinta Formation.

Artifact types within the cache included core struck flakes and backed pieces (sharp edge with a non-sharp opposite margin). There were also blades, which are twice as long as they are wide. The blades included several accidental blades and four true blades. Bifacial knives made of both chert and quartzite were also present. Unique to this cache (in the world, according to Bamforth) was a large, two-handed, double-bitted bifacial chopper.

Dr. Bamforth’s biggest question was how old is the Mahaffy cache? To help answer that question Bamforth used what he called “penguin logic”. I honestly can’t remember why he called it that but it boils down to logic. It is not necessarily a paleoindian cache just because there are paleoindian blades. Also, there are no diagnostic artifacts in the Mahaffy cache. There is nothing, like a Clovis point for example, that says, this cache dates to blank.

So, Bamforth used other indirect and relative methods of dating.

Two types of chert in the cache. (http://academyll.org/files/Douglas%20Bamforth%20-%20Mahaffy%20Cache%20(Clovis).pdf)The initial dating analysis discussed by Dr. Bamforth during the lecture involved the “black mats” of the Younger Dryas. These “mats” were discussed by Vance Haynes. Artifacts can be relatively dated by assessing their provenience in association with the mats. In this case, however, many of the artifacts were already removed by the time Bamforth arrived and the rest of the excavated hole was too disturbed to make a clear determination.

The name sake of the cache and owner of the property, Patrick Mahaffy, is rather wealthy. Since the artifacts were discovered on his property it was up to him as to what would be done with them. Dr. Bamforth suggested that they submit the artifacts to protein residue analysis by way of cross-over immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP), an expensive process.

All 83 pieces were sent for testing and four came back with positive hits. To be sure, the four hits were run three times. A backed chert piece came back with sheep protein. Bear protein was found on a giant quartzite biface. Another biface was used on a horse. The final hit was a piece used on a camel. The sheep and bear were not significant. The horse and camel were. The last time horse and camel species were seen in Boulder County was 13,000 years ago.

So, the two pieces in cache that hit for horse and camel were either made and used in the 20th century or they date to at least 13,000 years ago. Similarities in this cache to a biface in the well known Fenn cache suggest that the Mahaffy cache is Clovis.

Based on what they had found so far Bamforth wondered what the Mahaffy cache could tell him about the Clovis people. His answer? Diet. Bamforth explains.

Two-handed double-bitted biface. (http://academyll.org/files/Douglas%20Bamforth%20-%20Mahaffy%20Cache%20(Clovis).pdf)The tools were transported over long distances. Some flake scars were rounded over from rubbing against other pieces. The pieces made from material that was sourced further away exhibited more rounded scars. Also, there was little evidence of resharpening on the Mahaffy cache tools. In fact, they were barely used at all. They seem to have been transported in the condition that they were found.

Also, why was the cache found in Pat Mahaffy’s front yard? According to Bamforth, Gregory Creek flows east out of the Flatiron Mountains near Boulder. That creek runs right through Mahaffy’s back yard, or did, thousands of years ago.

Bamforth suggests that the cache was an insurance policy. It was placed there for future use in that area. The location and structure of the cache implies predictability and knowledge. Those people planned to come back. Bamforth feels that Clovis have been mischaracterized in the past. They were not wandering and misguided. They had purpose and direction.

The discovery of the Mahaffy cache and the results of the investigation prove what many already know. There is much that we do not know and do not understand about Clovis culture and the cultures before them. Much research is left to be done and more sites need to be found.

Clovis CultureEarly Paleo-Indian culture dating to the period 9500-9000 BC and represened widely over the central and southern plains area of North America. Clovis Culture communities are well known as big game hunters, especially fond of mammoth and bison. They also took smaller game such as deer and rabbits, and used plant resources too. They are mainly recognized archaeologically by a distinctive chipped stone industry which includes Clovis points. The Clovis Culture is sometimes referred to as the Llano.